What Are Backlinks?
Backlinks (also known as “inbound links”, “incoming links” or “one way links”) are links from one website to a page on another website. Google and other major search engines consider backlinks “votes” for a specific page. Pages with a high number of backlinks tend to have high organic search engine rankings.
For example, here is a link from Forbes to my website.
Because that link points directly to a page on my website, it’s a “backlink”.
Why Are Backlinks Important?
Backlinks are basically votes from other websites. Each of these votes tells search engines: “This content is valuable, credible and useful”.
So the more of these “votes” you have, the higher your site will rank in Google and other search engines.
Using links in a search engine algorithm is nothing new. In fact, backlinks formed the foundation of Google’s original algorithm (known as “PageRank”).
Even though Google has made thousands of changes to its algorithm since then, backlinks remain a key ranking signal.
For example, an industry study that we conducted found that links remain Google’s key ranking signal.
And Google has confirmed that backlinks remain one of their three most important search engine ranking factors.
What Types of Backlinks are Valuable?
Not all backlinks are created equal.
In other words, if you want to rank higher in the SERPs, focus on quality backlinks.
Put another way:
A single quality backlink can be more powerful than 1,000 low-quality backlinks.
As it turns out, high-quality backlinks tend to share the same key traits.
Trait #1: They Come From Trusted, Authoritative Websites
Would you rather get a backlink from Harvard… or a random guy’s website?
As it turns out, Google feels the same way.
This concept is known as “Domain Authority”. Essentially, the more authority a site has, the more authority it can pass on to your site (via a link).
For example, here’s a link that I got from TechCrunch.
According to Semrush, TechCrunch is an extremely authoritative domain.
Because that link comes from an authority site, Google puts lots of weight on it. In fact, I noticed a boost in my organic search engine traffic right after TechCrunch linked to me.
Are these links hard to get? Definitely.
Are they worth it? Absolutely.
Trait #2: They Include Your Target Keyword In The Link’s Anchor Text
As a reminder, anchor text is the visible text part of a link.
In general, you want your links to have anchor text that includes your target keyword.
In fact, a recent industry study found a correlation between keyword-rich anchor text and higher rankings for that keyword.
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